QuestionI am not into cars nor do I know anything about cars. I am asking you about this b/c I cannot find a "general" automotive "all experts" person. There is a chevrolet all expert but on vacation. Hope you dont mind. It is just a general question.
I have two cars: 2005 chevy trailblazer and 2002 subaru forester. I was laid off earlier in the year, but overall, I only drive the subaru to go to places b/c of the better gas mileage and savings in gas.
As for the chevy, I only drive it once a while just for the sake of "exercising the engines, etc" it instead of just having it sit in the garage day in and day out. When I drive the chevy, I go only a few miles like grocery shopping, etc, a few times on the hwy, but primarily on just regular streets.
You know how the standard rule of thumb for regular people like myself who are inexperienced with the technicalities of cars is that the oil change is to be done every 3-5k miles. B/c of the very limited driving on the chevy, it takes forever to get to the 3-5k mark. To paint a picture, in this chevy, I have the last oil change sticker that says 30k miles on odometer (I just rounded, but its more like 29,550) and date of March 2009!!! It is 12/4/10 Sat now and the odometer on the chevy is only 29,700+.
1. The fact that its been well over a year and a half since the last oil/filter change is ok isnt it? Overall, b/c I rarely drive the chevy, I know that I have hit the oil change odometer reading already, but is it critical to get an oil change even though it is rarely driven?
2. Regarding the 30k mileage MAINTENANCE that costs HUNDREDS OF dollars. I do not exactly know what kind of "maintenance" will involve in the chevy for the 30k maintenance that will cost hundreds, but back to that point again on how I rarely drive the chevy, so even when I hit the 30k on the odometer, is it NECESSARY to do the 30k maintenance still? If not, what odometer reading do I wait until?
Thanks for your time.
AnswerIn my experience if the vehicle is garaged and thus not subjected to extreme temperatures and changes of humiditiy the oil is just fine sitting in the oil pan as being in the bottle. I know of know reason to change the oil so long as most times when you drive it the temperature of the engine and thus the oil gets to the normal mid-scale temp gauge level. I would just disregard the calendar question and change it when it reaches the 3-5k mark of course watching for any unusual appearance of the oil on the dipstick.
On the 30k maintenance, I believe what is suggested would be fairly minimal things to do, so check the manual, and take allowance for the type of service you have asked of the vehicle and do only those things that appear to be relevant and cost effective. If you have some specific items listed please let me know what they are and we can consider the options. In the Chrysler manual for the LH body cars the maintenance items that would be considered as I see it would be the intake air filter (but you can inspect that and if you live in a low dust environment it may be unnecessary to change) and check the PCV valve to make sure the inner ball is free to move and the overall interior of it is not gummed up. Check the drive belt condition and tension would be another. And finally you might want to change the coolant, but again see what it looks like as the routine change is at 5 year intervals.
Roland
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